Recommended Books

As a follow up to his widely acclaimed Sustainable Urbanism, this new book from author Douglas Farr embraces the idea that the humanitarian, population, and climate crises are three facets of one interrelated human existential challenge, one with impossibly short deadlines.

Read about the science behind the key inventions—from electric power to large-scale farming to automobiles—that, even as they help us, release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere like never before. This author explains the current and projected consequences of global warming—from superstorms to rising sea levels—and the actions that we all can take to fight back.

New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species has before. Interweaving research in half a dozen disciplines, descriptions of the fascinating species that have already been lost, and the history of extinction as a concept.

An expansive, far-ranging exploration that sees the battle for a greener world as indistinguishable from the fight for our lives, On Fire captures the burning urgency of the climate crisis, as well as the fiery energy of a rising political movement demanding a catalytic Green New Deal.

Rigorously cataloguing the very latest climate science, Mark Lynas explores the course we have set for Earth over the next century and beyond. Degree by terrifying degree, he charts the likely consequences of global heating and the ensuing climate catastrophe.

In Net Zero the economist Professor Dieter Helm addresses the action we would all need to take, whether personal, local, national or global, if we really wanted to stop causing climate change.

Helm shows why the commonly held view that environmental protection poses obstacles to economic progress is false, and he explains why the environment must be at the very core of economic planning.

Arguing that more than even a scientific or technical challenge, climate change is a moral challenge, and that moral arguments are a primary necessity. This staggering collection brings us Thomas Berry, Desmond Tutu, Sally McFague, Robin Kimmerer, Brian Doyle and dozens of others.

This book share the story of how a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco to climate change. Merchants of Doubt rolls back the rug on this dark corner of American science. 

By 1979, we knew nearly everything we understand today about climate change—including how to stop it. Over the next decade, a handful of scientists, politicians, and strategists, led by two unlikely heroes, risked their careers in a desperate, escalating campaign to convince the world to act. This is their story, and ours.

You don’t have to be a Catholic to love this book! Francis goes for broke, giving us the most comprehensive integration of climate science, Christian ethics, and broad social invocation that you will find anywhere. If you want to go big on climate, this is it.

Gertner chronicles the unfathomable hardships, amazing discoveries, and scientific achievements of the Arctic’s explorers and researchers with a transporting, deeply intelligent style—and a keen sense of what this work means for the rest of us.